News continued to churn out of the various municipal Wi-Fi projects gaining steam across the country, as one city’s Wi-Fi contract made its way to a politically charged city council for a vote and another swirled in rumors of being temporarily shelved.
In the East, Philadelphia’s Technology and Information Services committee gave the city’s agreement with EarthLink Inc. a collective thumbs-up, sending the contract on its way toward city council approval.
“Though taking a little longer than expected, this latest step is a significant milestone for Philadelphia in its efforts to make affordable citywide broadband a reality,” observed Craig Settles, author of “Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless.”
Philadelphia’s city council is expected to vote in favor of EarthLink’s contract, setting in motion the city’s Wi-Fi network buildout after more than two years of planning, negotiating and politicking.
Across the country in San Francisco, trouble may be brewing for Google Inc. and EarthLink’s municipal Wi-Fi plans. Jake McGoldrick, a San Francisco supervisor, is gaining increasing support in his attempt to put the brakes on the city’s Wi-Fi project so that plans can be re-examined.
McGoldrick helped shed light on potential security and privacy matters that they city hasn’t addressed as of yet in its dealings with EarthLink and Google. Last year EarthLink and Google submitted separate proposals for San Francisco `s Wi-Fi network. Then, in February, the companies jointly submitted a proposal that suggested a Google-managed, ad-supported free network alongside an EarthLink-managed, fee-based service. In April, San Francisco chose Google and EarthLink to jointly build its municipal Wi-Fi network.
Settles explained that San Franciscans would be well-served to reconsider the terms of their Wi-Fi network contract.
Regardless of how things go in San Francisco, Google still plans to build an advertising-funded Wi-Fi network for its home town of Mountain View, Calif. Separately, EarthLink continues to move forward with its plans to build a network in Milpitas, Calif.
However, EarthLink lost a bid to supply Portland, Ore. with a Wi-Fi network. Portland went with Mountain View-based MetroFi, whose proposal offers both a free service and a variety of subscriber-based plans to local businesses and citizens. The free service is to be supported by advertising within users’ Web browsers, city officials said. MetroFi plans to use both Wi-Fi and pre-WiMAX technologies for the network.
Interestingly, Google says it’s not interested in competing to build the proposed 1,500 square-mile Wi-Fi network in Silicon Valley. The massive network will support about 2.4 million users, and industry watchers suspect that EarthLink may throw its hat in the ring. The company has until June 30 to respond to the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force request for proposal.
While vendors jostle for network contracts, there is evidence of a light at the end of the tunnel. St. Cloud, Fla.’s municipal Wi-Fi network is up and running with more than 4,000 registered households-and very few problems. City residents have been getting DSL speeds for free for the past two months.
“There have been three types of problems,” explains Jonathan Baltuch, president of Marketing Resources Inc., the firm that worked with the city to develop its Wi-Fi project. “The biggest problem has been with end-user equipment, as some people have had to buy Wi-Fi cards for their computers. Though we did our best to educate residents about possible computer-related problems prior to the launch, some people just didn’t understand until they tried to log on to the network.
“And there have been some geography issues. People living outside of city limits have complained that they can’t access the network.”
Baltuch said around 13 percent of users have called the network’s helpline.
Both Hewlett-Packard Co. and Tropos Networks Inc. acknowledge that there is still tweaking to be done.
“Overall, things are going very well in St Cloud, but it’s important to realize that the network is still in initial rollout and optimization phase,” points out Burt Williams, senior director of marketing at Tropos.
